Page 263 of Hunters and Prey

The instant I’d done it, realization flooded my mind. I’d just slapped someone in the Council with my light. They were trying to help me, and I’d just hit them for their troubles. Possibly even for something they’d done on accident.

I expected to feel anger, or disapproval.

Instead, I felt amusement.

They were laughing at me.

The presence hit me again––harder.

That time, I could almost see them.

The space opened up, dark and seething. I saw a form bleeding light as it darted around me, hands up as if we were in a sparring ring. Glimmers of their presence reached me, along with an awareness of where they were, even when they spun around me, disappearing into the dark space, then reappearing right in front of me.

They hit me again, harder.

Again, without thought, I wound up and hit them back, harder than they’d hit me. They hit me harder still––that time, without a break between.

Feeling a heat growing in my chest, I clenched my jaw.

They were fucking with me.

Whoever this asshole was, they thought they were being funny.

Pick on the dumbass half-human who hasn’t received any of the fancy sight-skill training every other seer I knew had received. Pick on the overemotional dumbass who can’t control her light, who was too much of a fucking coward to look at her own goddamned memories.

Feeling that scared part of my light, whatever the Council seer was poking at, I decided to introduce them to a different part of me.

When he hit out at me the next time, I slammed into him––hard.

That time, I used a part of me that felt a lot bigger, and a lot more adult.

Rather than shock, anger, or even disapproval, I felt a near cheer go up that time, along with more laughter. Feeling Allie in that, along with Balidor’s gorgeous, Thai-looking wife, I felt my anger worsen, despite the good-humored nature of the cheers.

I saw Nick then, in my mind.

I saw Nick, then Solonik, another seer who laughed at me when I tried to fight back…

Pain rippled through me.

I remembered being on the roof of Black’s building, watching what I was doing without being able to change any of it. I saw myself go along with Nick, along with everything he wanted. I saw my body betray me, my light. I saw my mind betray me as I got confused as to who I was with, doped to the gills on vampire venom.

I hated how fucking helpless I looked to myself.

I hated how weak I was.

Someone smacked me again.

I turned around in that dark space. Without thought, I unfurled a part of my light, putting every ounce of my will behind it––

––and slammed him completely away from me.

I may have knocked him out of the Barrier entirely.

It was a him, I knew.

Somehow, I just knew it was a fucking him.

Like my Uncle Charles, like Brick, like Ian, like Nick, like Solonik… like Black himself sometimes… I was stuck between these goddamned men, all of them trying to use me or manipulate me or protect me. I didn’t want their fucking help.

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